The Life of the Emperor of Man, Part I
by supermcg
Summary: The creation of the Emperor.


"Is it working?" asked the general.

The scientist began "If you mean 'Is he alive?' I think- "

"No." he cut back unleashing years of pent agitation, "I don't care if he lives, I only care if he works, alive or dead. All this effort [arms waving] for close to a year, the loss of our lands…only matter if it, or "HE" is what you say it is!"

A dull, but close thud of an explosive cuts off the general and buffets the control room.

The scientist steadied herself on the edge of the table supporting displays, dials, and keyboards then answers, "I think he is progressing as anticipated."

The general scoffed "Anticipated? Because that ghoulish alien rock says this might make a superweapon?" His gloved hand jabs at a pristine, golden stone slate on the control room's table. The scientist reflexively picked it up and held it to her chest.

He continues to release, "Every lost fighter we needed to hold the borders from the hordes went into this menagerie. Scouring the earth for these bizarre techno relics to build that revolting mechanical atrocity and then raiding across the warzones seizing these freaks of astro-cognitives. *HE* alone [gesturing into the cavern] ,*that* monstrosity was the worst, he killed six of our best squads, including my last son. Only your father could fall for all your supernatural dreams of salvation."

"You would not say that if he were here." Retorted the scientist.

"I have no illusion either of us will live to see his punishm-"

Another explosion shakes the room.

The pair are standing in a small control room overlooking a brightly lit cavern roughly hacked through rock. The work was done in such a rush that giant boring machines still sit in the far corner.

The floor of the cavern is littered with over a hundred occupied beds. In them lay old, young, giant, and withered. Some only vaguely betraying their human origin…twisted, carved bodies, many covered in tattoos of nauseating symbols.

Each patient has a thick, golden band around their head held in place by spikes through both temples. It would almost look angelic if not for the blood. They were bound to their beds with immense cuffs and chains made of a mysterious heavily patinated metal that gripped every joint. Countless medical lines ran all over their disintegrating bodies injecting and drawing fluids. Despite all their eyes being wide open and twitching, few showed any other signs of life.

From the back of each patient's head shot a storm of wires that lead up to the ceiling and joined the others' wires as they flowed like a river to a single giant machine built into the wall. More than a singular device, it was a cobble of hundreds of connected computers and machines crudely patched together. Some looked ancient and powerful and others looked to be made by hands other than human.

The machine pulsed with light and sound that almost followed a rhythm, if not a melody. It was so tall it climbed right up out of the cavern into upper floors. Oils oozed out of dials and even the base. Anyone in the facility could feel its presence…a vibration in the air that passed through one like a hand grasping for something within them.

But anyone unlucky enough to stand within 5 meters of it would get the feeling ants were crawling under their skin. Over the months the scientist and her staff had buried six overnight guards who died while on duty with no apparent physical harm. All knew the machine, somehow, had taken them.

At the machine's base sat a sarcophagus. It is the size of the control room itself and shaped in the outline of a giant human. One large lever on its side was its only detail.

The attackers were closing. Nervous soldiers were positioned around the cavern's entrance, two giant metal doors closed with bolts the size of a tusk, with weapons out. Technicians sprinted around the room, checking on those lashed to the beds. Replacing lines, adjusting the cranial spikes, and worse.

A stray round striking outside of the mammoth doors provided an update on the location of the battle.

"Finish squeezing the final aberrations. We don't have much time." Then the concussion of a second explosion kicked the chamber. A moment later it was followed a roar, that might be described as a dying scream, that raked through the cavern. It was incapable of being made by any earthly creature.

"I know our situation is dire, but do you think your troops can give us even an hour?"

The general checked a display on his wrist. "I cannot guarantee ten minutes, they are now on this level and brought a creature from the Devil's lap with them. I thought it dead after we fought it at Pir Panjal pass. I have half a mind to blow up this facility just to take it with me."

The scientist's face showed miserable acknowledgement. She turned to the dials and buttons in front of her and pushed every lever to the top. Dozens of the chained bedbound figures, who previously appeared long dead, shuddered cruelly awake. After a few minutes, one by one, they settled into peace and their wires were ripped out by the staff sprinting amongst the hundred beds.

Without looking up from the dials, the scientist said, "the last of the contributors are drained into the recipient."

"After a thousand human astrals spent as batteries, again doctor, does _it_ work?" pained the general.

"We aren't really done. The genetic control system needs time to be take hold. Simply put, the motor is built, the battery is full, but the steering wheel is not in place. I have the work calculated down to the individual DNA splice but the gene weaver works slowly. The ability to control his expected levels of astral energy are not implemented. Unleashing him now, after what we just sent into him, could make him a self-fueled pyre or open a portal to the astral plane. He is balanced between two worlds with no anchor and capable of receiving and directing ungodly amounts of power."

The skeptical general did not have the chance to respond. That scream was heard again, this time just outside the chamber's doors. Instantly they exploded into a deadly hailstorm that filled the chamber with molten missiles. Almost all the staff and many of the forces protecting the room fell like gory rags.

A fierce firefight erupted as the attacking troops filled the chamber. These soldiers were covered in physical augments to the point of appearing robotic instead of human. Though the General's troops had few of such devices this late in the war, they were still slowly thinning the invaders number. The attacker's augments and stimulants made them brazen, haphazard, and fearless but this also made them better targets for the persevering, genetically strengthened defenders.

The scientist, seeing the battle turn whispered from behind the desk "We may yet have time to finish our work."

Unemotionally, the General responded while looking at his wrist display "We won't. It's here."

Through the blasted doors, stepping on his own soldier's bodies, walked a giant, ruddy swollen man carrying a heavy chain that emitted a faint blue glow. The man was clad in a bizarre mix of augments that included one hand somehow merged with an automatic pistol and an eye that was replaced by a laser sight. But counter to his attachments, his armor appeared to be pelts from animals and their bones. Some bones appeared human.

As the chieftain walked into the firefight, a gurgling, wet growl followed. A few paces behind him, at the end of the chain, was a revolting monster. It was of possible lupine by origin, but its hairless skin was charred, cracked, and emitting a red glow, like it was just pulled from a burning oil barrel. Its maw was full of a snaggle of teeth, most broken into jagged tips. Its eyes were black pools of oil, impossible to see without fear overtaking the viewer. Behind the monster followed two chanting, malicious priests dressed in leather robes and masks of macabre origin.

The chieftain whipped the slack end of the chain on the ground and the creature roared again. Soldiers from both sides were blown across the room and the drained astrals and beds flew in every direction. All but a handful of attackers stood afterwards; only the general and the scientist remained of the rooms original inhabitants. Though they felt the creature's blast, they were mostly protected in the presciently armored control room.

Silence filled the cavern and then was broken with a yell.

"I know you two are up there…come down and talk!" bellowed the chieftain.

The General, still quite calm given the situation whispered to the scientist, "Where is he now, can you release him? I'd take a portal to Hell over our immediate future."

The scientist was already peaking up from under the table and checking her displays and said, "No, everything is offline from that thing's roar. I—I can't even open the chamber from here."

The chieftain screamed again "I MEAN NOW, or we get another bark from the pup!"

The general stood up, straightened his uniform and set his pistol down on the table. He helped the scientist to her feet and then forced open the now warped door to their room and walked down the steps with ramrod posture.

Giving a small, mocking bow the chieftain said, "Thank you….half my reason for coming here was for you both. My preference, but not order, was for you to be alive when done."

With each step closer to the chieftain and his beast the smell of the foul creature became worse. It was like walking into a haze of steaming, rotten meat. The monstrosity eyed them up and down as it would a wounded lamb.

The chieftain looked around and said, "Sorry about the mess. I hate doing things the hard way, but you've never seen things as I do. Now, to avoid any more excitement, give us your new weapon. I promise, we will treat you both well as you get this facility back online to continue production."

Without even the time it would take for a breath the General responded, "I promise you we will both be dead before you get a single effort from either of us." Despite her best effort to suppress it, a noticeable jerk betrayed the scientist shock at the pronouncement.

The chieftain ignored him and clapped his hands. "Now, where is it?" [looking around with anticipation and some confusion at all the patients strewn about] Please don't tell me it's a new piece of artillery, I know how much you love the flying shell, General Aakar. But I have need of more direct weapons. Beam maybe? We know you have it here. Now what and WHERE it is?"

The scientist, almost embarrassed, "Its not a thing, it's a person."

The chieftain, voice filling with resigned anger. "Now now, we KNOW you have a new weapon. Spies across the plateau have watched all the scouring activity to build this facility. Give us the device or I will make you wish you had died with the last bark. Trust me, even I don't want to watch her play with you." the chieftain said while swinging the chain.

Scientist, "You can kill me, but it won't make a weapon appear."

A voice from across the cavern floor. "I found something! It's a box or something, but I can't see inside. It's a shaped like person. I think I can get it open." Though excited, you could already hear a warble in the soldier's voice as the machine's tendrils bore through him.

General Aaskar ordered "Get away from that you idiot! That can kill us a-"

A round from the chieftain 's fused pistol flew through the general's chest and he fell forward with a dull thump on the ground next to the body of a soldier.

Chieftain holding a smoking gun towards the mortified scientist "I didn't need him as much as I need you Dhanaya…"

The nearest troopers roughly grabs her by the throat and drags her, along her back, over to the chieftain's feet. He kneels and leans over to look her in the eyes and their faces are centimeters apart.

Chieftain point to the chamber with his gun "What is in that coffin? Is this your weapon?"

Dhanaya just stares back. The chieftain leans his giant knee deeply into her chest. A high-pitched wheezing leaves her mouth and after 30 eternal seconds she nods.

The chieftain jumps up and spins around in fury "I lost hundreds of fighters for one of your DNA soldiers?" The same ones I killed by the dozen just breaking in here? Curse the gods, I will kill every informant with my own hand for this fiasco."

Between coughs to inflate her lungs Dhanaya struggles to her feet to say, "You can kill me as well for saying this….but I would leave him in there."

Chieftain, "Choose your words carefully sister, your best chance to survive this family reunion is if he is of any use to me."

Dhanaya, looking the chieftain in the eyes "Ganesh, he has a terrible power and…I don't know what he will do."

Even through her partial asphyxiation and his monstrous new form, Dhanaya knew her brother well enough to recognize fear in his eyes. Their father, on the rare times he was not campaigning, gave them all reason to feel it. She could tell he believed her when she thought his life was in jeopardy. But the fear slowly retreated when he realized his soldiers were all watching him to see if he would back down from a scientist's petty fears.

Ganesh turns to face the chamber and say, "Open it Faneel…I want to see this one now."

However, Faneel …who was lying dead at its base, would not be of much help.

"What happened to him?" screamed the chieftain to Dhanaya.

With little patience, she responded, "Aakar told you how dangerous this weapon is and you ignored him. Why do you think this was built 50 meters under solid dolomite? That machine alone has killed half a dozen just operating normally. Now you want to force it open?"

All the soldiers started inching away from the discussion and towards the exit. Furious, Ganesh yelled "Someone _will _open it or I am going to start shooting each of you until I find a volunteer!"

Dhanaya, "Wait! He is unchecked. I don't know what he can do, he could be a threat to everyone on earth. If you let me finish, just a few days even, I promise you, I will continue my work to ensure he is safe."

Ganesh "You speak insanely for a one who always acts so superior. I am going to put a bullet in him myself and then one into you." The chieftain waved gun at his soldiers to tell them to open the chamber.

Silence settled on the room until a single soldier, already clearly wounded by several rounds stepped forward, "Raju, thank you! I will personally tell your parents of your sacrifice."

Raju, trailing blood, shuffled over to the lever on the side of the sarcophagus and strained with every ounce of remaining energy to push it down. Jutting lights and sounds rose from the machine behind him almost as if it was afraid. His entire body convulsed and then, just as he rolled off the lever on to the other soldier's body, it slammed down.

The sound of bolts popping reverberated around the room and then the lid arose slowly to the right. The throbbing pressure that filled the room from the giant machine receded as it finally powered down.

Then nothing. Even the priests' chanting stopped in anticipation.

Without a word, the chieftain slammed a spike at the end of the chain into the stone ground to anchor the beast and slowly strode over to the sarcophagus and looks in.

He just stares for a few moments, completely transfixed.

Then, suddenly self-conscious that he is being watched, he chuckles. The light laughter spreads to even a few soldiers as fear unwound its hold.

Still looking down into the chamber "Oh sister, you have played your last trick on me. But you saved a truly great one for our finale. I thought you would at least surprise me with some evil beasts, monsters to rival my own….but instead I find-" and with one fluid, effortless swipe he reached down into the chamber yanked up a figure. Dangling by his arm was an ordinary, unconscious man. He is wearing a simple gown and dozens of wires and tubes hang from him. The beast begins to furiously snarl and pull at the chain.

Ganesh flung him like a dead hare to the ground at Dhanaya's feet and fury flashes across her face. He then yells to the handful of remaining troops, "Beat him, you've earned it."

The troops immediate push Dhanaya out of the way and pounce on the man, who has yet to show any sign of life at all. Blows, kicks, rifle but whirl up and down. The beast continues a long roaring snarl, yanking on its chain to the point even the priests begin feverishly chanting again to restrain it.

While walking back to the growing assault, Ganesh looks at Dhanaya and bellows, "This is who you warned me about? This pile of pulp? And you were supposed to be the smart one!" And with a turn back to the pummeling he yells, "ENOUGH!" and the soldiers flinch back away from the bloody heap of a man. The body is face up, with not signal of life beside bleeding.

The beast is now leaping against its stretching chain, to the point it is sounds as if it will break. The priests continue chanting but every second seem to be losing their hold on the monster.

Ganesh grabs the patient by the hair and takes him in the air, to face the frothing, lurching creature.

"He is yours."

Before he even finished the sentence, the room fills with a swirling energy. Lights float and streak in various colors. Immediately a high-pitched ping of the chain breaking apart bounces off the walls. The priests well up in a smoky flame, swelling with a power like Ganesh. There arms reach out and lightening arcs from each hand to the diving monster.

The beast flew in a mighty arc, straight for the sagging patient. It tilts its head sideways as it nears to fully envelope the neck.

Dhanaya braced for a horrifying a result. At the last fraction of a second before smashed teeth shredded the patient, both of his arms shot up and inexplicably caught the creature by the neck. And the two were locked. Ganesh is now back a step, the patient is standing with feet planted, holding back this ravenous beast.

Then everything froze and time ground forward like a dripping wax. The air felt heavy, thick. Sounds became low and drawn out. In the slowest of possible progressions, the two were still struggling. Lights fluttered around the room, mutterings and chants came from nowhere. The remaining soldiers began to bleed from their eyes, noses, and ear before collapsing in convulsions.

Dhanaya felt the rooms was no longer occupied by just them...others had arrived. she could not see them, but the power and strength of terrible entities had rushed in as soon as the beast was released. Somehow, she thought she sensed they were angry and afraid. Despite the malevolent maelstrom, Dhanaya felt safe, as if it was all passing around her.

The priests were now glowing black and screaming with their arms stretched towards willing the beast forward and filling it with terrifying power. It shook with fury, but could not get any closer to the patient. The patient was still dead still, raised arms holding the beast and looking at it, dispassionately, in the eyes. The beast looked back, smashing its teeth together.

Aaskar opened his eyes. Until a moment ago he only remembered a low pop and then nothing. Now he felt tremendous pain in his chest and his lungs are filled with a fluid he knows is his own blood drowning him. Yet he is awake and without looking reaches his left finding an expected rifle from one of his soldiers. The room is a swirling maelstrom of anger and electricity but he feels completely calm. He sees the patient holding the gnashing beast in the air and allows himself a moment of praise for the damn scientist's work. His eyes see the giant beast and through the storm he focuses on the back of its head. He sits straight up as he pulls the gun to his shoulder.

He fires a burst. Time was so slow, the bullets flew like lobbed stones. As if one could somehow see the bullets flying for the creature. The priest nearest the general swung one hand and the energy from his hand caught the bullets and then both them and the general explode. His arms immediately swung back to powering the growing beast.

The patient was now losing the fight. The creature appeared twice its original size and thrashing like a feeding shark. The gamble had failed and now a small door had opened. Slowly, its maw was closing around the patient's throat. Blood began to run down the front of the gown. The room's powerful visitors were pulsing with anticipation of victory. The walls of solid rock were shaking. The creature was burning brighter red, the priests screaming was almost deafening. Their lightning bolts were pulsing and growing.

BANG

A priest's head exploded. Dhanaya stood behind him, holding the general's pistol from the control room. The other priest furiously turned an arm on her began to lash her with the fury of the room for her act.

But the retribution was short lived. The entirety of the malevolent energy redirected and overwhelmed the single priest and he was finished in a ball of flame.

The next instant you could hear the beast's neck snap with a series of slow cracks and pops. It wailed and fell to the ground.

Dhanaya felt the room return to some feeling of reality. The energy evaporated off like the last water in a boiling pot taken from the flame. The patient was now standing on his own next to her brother. Ganesh looked confused, both at the sudden loss but even more as if he was awoken from a dream.

Then she sensed something. A sense of regret for what was about to happen. Something wanted them to know they were sorry. She was able feel here brother was dead as his existence left the room. Despite the years of pain caused by him, she felt a momentary twinge of loss.

Ganesh slumped to the ground and a blue flame engulfed his body and he was gone.

Then time returns to pour forward. Only Dhanaya and the man are standing in the room surrounded by so many bodies and carnage.

Dhanaya realizes she cannot really see him, not like a normal person. He is there, she can feel a presence, but from moment to moment she struggles to actually focus on him, as if he is an illusion phasing in and out of existence and yet he is right in front of her. All the blood from the beast and bullets is gone, even from his gown.

The chamber felt so empty. The entire facility is silent. She knows they are the only two alive.

Woman "Was that you?"

He simply stares at her.

Dhanaya, "I am so glad you are ok, after all that energy we sent into you…all they did to you. And yet you stopped them…with you we can win this war." She was genuinely elated, and proud. For the first time in years she thought the war could be won.

The man just continued to stare at her.

Woman "You need to get back into the chamber. You are not….healed. We need to finish the work so you are com- completely healed."

He looks towards what used to be the doors that led to the rest of the facility.

Dhanaya feels panic and quickly walks over to him, trying to stand between him and the exit, 'Thank you for everything, but you have to get back in. Please, I am begging you. You aren't well, you can hurt yourself and others!"

"Is it working?" asked the general.

The scientist began "If you mean you mean 'Is he alive?' I think- "

"No." he cut back unleashing years of pent agitation, "I don't care if he lives, I only care if he works, alive or dead. All this effort [arms waving] for close to a year, the loss of our lands…only matter if it, or "HE" is what you say it is!"

A dull, but close thud of an explosive cuts off the general and buffets the control room.

The scientist steadied herself on the edge of the table supporting displays, dials, and keyboards then answers, "I think he is progressing as anticipated."

The general scoffed "Anticipated? Because that ghoulish alien rock says this might make a superweapon?" His gloved hand jabs at a pristine, golden stone slate on the control room's table. The scientist reflexively picked it up and held it to her chest.

He continues to release, "Every lost fighter we needed to hold the borders from the hordes went into this menagerie. Scouring the earth for these bizarre techno relics to build that revolting mechanical atrocity and then raiding across the warzones seizing these freaks of astro-cognitives. *HE* alone [gesturing into the cavern] ,*that* monstrosity was the worst, he killed six of our best squads, including my last son. Only your father could fall for all your supernatural dreams of salvation."

"You would not say that if he were here." Retorted the scientist.

"I have no illusion either of us will live to see his punishm-"

Another explosion shakes the room.

The pair are standing in a small control room overlooking a brightly lit cavern roughly hacked through rock. The work was done in such a rush that giant boring machines still sit in the far corner.

The floor of the cavern is littered with over a hundred occupied beds. In them lay old, young, giant, and withered. Some only vaguely betraying their human origin…twisted, carved bodies, many covered in tattoos of nauseating symbols.

Each patient has a thick, golden band around their head held in place by spikes through both temples. It would almost look angelic if not for the blood. They were bound to their beds with immense cuffs and chains made of a mysterious heavily patinated metal that gripped every joint. Countless medical lines ran all over their disintegrating bodies injecting and drawing fluids. Despite all their eyes being wide open and twitching, few showed any other signs of life.

From the back of each patient's head shot a storm of wires that lead up to the ceiling and joined the others' wires as they flowed like a river to a single giant machine built into the wall. More than a singular device, it was a cobble of hundreds of connected computers and machines crudely patched together. Some looked ancient and powerful and others looked to be made by hands other than human.

The machine pulsed with light and sound that almost followed a rhythm, if not a melody. It was so tall it climbed right up out of the cavern into upper floors. Oils oozed out of dials and even the base. Anyone in the facility could feel its presence…a vibration in the air that passed through one like a hand grasping for something within them.

But anyone unlucky enough to stand within 5 meters of it would get the feeling ants were crawling under their skin. Over the months the scientist and her staff had buried six overnight guards who died while on duty with no apparent physical harm. All knew the machine, somehow, had taken them.

At the machine's base sat a sarcophagus. It is the size of the control room itself and shaped in the outline of a giant human. One large lever on its side was its only detail.

The attackers were closing. Nervous soldiers were positioned around the cavern's entrance, two giant metal doors closed with bolts the size of a tusk, with weapons out. Technicians sprinted around the room, checking on those lashed to the beds. Replacing lines, adjusting the cranial spikes, and worse.

A stray round striking outside of the mammoth doors provided an update on the location of the battle.

"Finish squeezing the final aberrations. We don't have much time." Then the concussion of a second explosion kicked the chamber. A moment later it was followed a roar, that might be described as a dying scream, that raked through the cavern. It was incapable of being made by any earthly creature.

"I know our situation is dire, but do you think your troops can give us even an hour?"

The general checked a display on his wrist. "I cannot guarantee ten minutes, they are now on this level and brought a creature from the Devil's lap with them. I thought it dead after we fought it at Pir Panjal pass. I have half a mind to blow up this facility just to take it with me."

The scientist's face showed miserable acknowledgement. She turned to the dials and buttons in front of her and pushed every lever to the top. Dozens of the chained bedbound figures, who previously appeared long dead, shuddered cruelly awake. After a few minutes, one by one, they settled into peace and their wires were ripped out by the staff sprinting amongst the hundred beds.

Without looking up from the dials, the scientist said, "the last of the contributors are drained into the recipient."

"After a thousand human astrals spent as batteries, again doctor, does _it_ work?" pained the general.

"We aren't really done. The genetic control system needs time to be take hold. Simply put, the motor is built, the battery is full, but the steering wheel is not in place. I have the work calculated down to the individual DNA splice but the gene weaver works slowly. The ability to control his expected levels of astral energy are not implemented. Unleashing him now, after what we just sent into him, could make him a self-fueled pyre or open a portal to the astral plane. He is balanced between two worlds with no anchor and capable of receiving and directing ungodly amounts of power."

The skeptical general did not have the chance to respond. That scream was heard again, this time just outside the chamber's doors. Instantly they exploded into a deadly hailstorm that filled the chamber with molten missiles. Almost all the staff and many of the forces protecting the room fell like gory rags.

A fierce firefight erupted as the attacking troops filled the chamber. These soldiers were covered in physical augments to the point of appearing robotic instead of human. Though the General's troops had few of such devices this late in the war, they were still slowly thinning the invaders number. The attacker's augments and stimulants made them brazen, haphazard, and fearless but this also made them better targets for the persevering, genetically strengthened defenders.

The scientist, seeing the battle turn whispered from behind the desk "We may yet have time to finish our work."

Unemotionally, the General responded while looking at his wrist display "We won't. It's here."

Through the blasted doors, stepping on his own soldier's bodies, walked a giant, ruddy swollen man carrying a heavy chain that emitted a faint blue glow. The man was clad in a bizarre mix of augments that included one hand somehow merged with an automatic pistol and an eye that was replaced by a laser sight. But counter to his attachments, his armor appeared to be pelts from animals and their bones. Some bones appeared human.

As the chieftain walked into the firefight, a gurgling, wet growl followed. A few paces behind him, at the end of the chain, was a revolting monster. It was of possible lupine by origin, but its hairless skin was charred, cracked, and emitting a red glow, like it was just pulled from a burning oil barrel. Its maw was full of a snaggle of teeth, most broken into jagged tips. Its eyes were black pools of oil, impossible to see without fear overtaking the viewer. Behind the monster followed two chanting, malicious priests dressed in leather robes and masks of macabre origin.

The chieftain whipped the slack end of the chain on the ground and the creature roared again. Soldiers from both sides were blown across the room and the drained astrals and beds flew in every direction. All but a handful of attackers stood afterwards; only the general and the scientist remained of the rooms original inhabitants. Though they felt the creature's blast, they were mostly protected in the presciently armored control room.

Silence filled the cavern and then was broken with a yell.

"I know you two are up there…come down and talk!" bellowed the chieftain.

The General, still quite calm given the situation whispered to the scientist, "Where is he now, can you release him? I'd take a portal to Hell over our immediate future."

The scientist was already peaking up from under the table and checking her displays and said, "No, everything is offline from that thing's roar. I—I can't even open the chamber from here."

The chieftain screamed again "I MEAN NOW, or we get another bark from the pup!"

The general stood up, straightened his uniform and set his pistol down on the table. He helped the scientist to her feet and then forced open the now warped door to their room and walked down the steps with ramrod posture.

Giving a small, mocking bow the chieftain said, "Thank you….half my reason for coming here was for you both. My preference, but not order, was for you to be alive when done."

With each step closer to the chieftain and his beast the smell of the foul creature became worse. It was like walking into a haze of steaming, rotten meat. The monstrosity eyed them up and down as it would a wounded lamb.

The chieftain looked around and said, "Sorry about the mess. I hate doing things the hard way, but you've never seen things as I do. Now, to avoid any more excitement, give us your new weapon. I promise, we will treat you both well as you get this facility back online to continue production."

Without even the time it would take for a breath the General responded, "I promise you we will both be dead before you get a single effort from either of us." Despite her best effort to suppress it, a noticeable jerk betrayed the scientist shock at the pronouncement.

The chieftain ignored him and clapped his hands. "Now, where is it?" [looking around with anticipation and some confusion at all the patients strewn about] Please don't tell me it's a new piece of artillery, I know how much you love the flying shell, General Aakar. But I have need of more direct weapons. Beam maybe? We know you have it here. Now what and WHERE it is?"

The scientist, almost embarrassed, "Its not a thing, it's a person."

The chieftain, voice filling with resigned anger. "Now now, we KNOW you have a new weapon. Spies across the plateau have watched all the scouring activity to build this facility. Give us the device or I will make you wish you had died with the last bark. Trust me, even I don't want to watch her play with you." the chieftain said while swinging the chain.

Scientist, "You can kill me, but it won't make a weapon appear."

A voice from across the cavern floor. "I found something! It's a box or something, but I can't see inside. It's a shaped like person. I think I can get it open." Though excited, you could already hear a warble in the soldier's voice as the machine's tendrils bore through him.

General Aaskar ordered "Get away from that you idiot! That can kill us a-"

A round from the chieftain 's fused pistol flew through the general's chest and he fell forward with a dull thump on the ground next to the body of a soldier.

Chieftain holding a smoking gun towards the mortified scientist "I didn't need him as much as I need you Dhanaya…"

The nearest troopers roughly grabs her by the throat and drags her, along her back, over to the chieftain's feet. He kneels and leans over to look her in the eyes and their faces are centimeters apart.

Chieftain point to the chamber with his gun "What is in that coffin? Is this your weapon?"

Dhanaya just stares back. The chieftain leans his giant knee deeply into her chest. A high-pitched wheezing leaves her mouth and after 30 eternal seconds she nods.

The chieftain jumps up and spins around in fury "I lost hundreds of fighters for one of your DNA soldiers?" The same ones I killed by the dozen just breaking in here? Curse the gods, I will kill every informant with my own hand for this fiasco."

Between coughs to inflate her lungs Dhanaya struggles to her feet to say, "You can kill me as well for saying this….but I would leave him in there."

Chieftain, "Choose your words carefully sister, your best chance to survive this family reunion is if he is of any use to me."

Dhanaya, looking the chieftain in the eyes "Ganesh, he has a terrible power and…I don't know what he will do."

Even through her partial asphyxiation and his monstrous new form, Dhanaya knew her brother well enough to recognize fear in his eyes. Their father, on the rare times he was not campaigning, gave them all reason to feel it. She could tell he believed her when she thought his life was in jeopardy. But the fear slowly retreated when he realized his soldiers were all watching him to see if he would back down from a scientist's petty fears.

Ganesh turns to face the chamber and say, "Open it Faneel…I want to see this one now."

However, Faneel …who was lying dead at its base, would not be of much help.

"What happened to him?" screamed the chieftain to Dhanaya.

With little patience, she responded, "Aakar told you how dangerous this weapon is and you ignored him. Why do you think this was built 50 meters under solid dolomite? That machine alone has killed half a dozen just operating normally. Now you want to force it open?"

All the soldiers started inching away from the discussion and towards the exit. Furious, Ganesh yelled "Someone _will _open it or I am going to start shooting each of you until I find a volunteer!"

Dhanaya, "Wait! He is unchecked. I don't know what he can do, he could be a threat to everyone on earth. If you let me finish, just a few days even, I promise you, I will continue my work to ensure he is safe."

Ganesh "You speak insanely for a one who always acts so superior. I am going to put a bullet in him myself and then one into you." The chieftain waved gun at his soldiers to tell them to open the chamber.

Silence settled on the room until a single soldier, already clearly wounded by several rounds stepped forward, "Raju, thank you! I will personally tell your parents of your sacrifice."

Raju, trailing blood, shuffled over to the lever on the side of the sarcophagus and strained with every ounce of remaining energy to push it down. Jutting lights and sounds rose from the machine behind him almost as if it was afraid. His entire body convulsed and then, just as he rolled off the lever on to the other soldier's body, it slammed down.

The sound of bolts popping reverberated around the room and then the lid arose slowly to the right. The throbbing pressure that filled the room from the giant machine receded as it finally powered down.

Then nothing. Even the priests' chanting stopped in anticipation.

Without a word, the chieftain slammed a spike at the end of the chain into the stone ground to anchor the beast and slowly strode over to the sarcophagus and looks in.

He just stares for a few moments, completely transfixed.

Then, suddenly self-conscious that he is being watched, he chuckles. The light laughter spreads to even a few soldiers as fear unwound its hold.

Still looking down into the chamber "Oh sister, you have played your last trick on me. But you saved a truly great one for our finale. I thought you would at least surprise me with some evil beasts, monsters to rival my own….but instead I find-" and with one fluid, effortless swipe he reached down into the chamber yanked up a figure. Dangling by his arm was an ordinary, unconscious man. He is wearing a simple gown and dozens of wires and tubes hang from him. The beast begins to furiously snarl and pull at the chain.

Ganesh flung him like a dead hare to the ground at Dhanaya's feet and fury flashes across her face. He then yells to the handful of remaining troops, "Beat him, you've earned it."

The troops immediate push Dhanaya out of the way and pounce on the man, who has yet to show any sign of life at all. Blows, kicks, rifle but whirl up and down. The beast continues a long roaring snarl, yanking on its chain to the point even the priests begin feverishly chanting again to restrain it.

While walking back to the growing assault, Ganesh looks at Dhanaya and bellows, "This is who you warned me about? This pile of pulp? And you were supposed to be the smart one!" And with a turn back to the pummeling he yells, "ENOUGH!" and the soldiers flinch back away from the bloody heap of a man. The body is face up, with not signal of life beside bleeding.

The beast is now leaping against its stretching chain, to the point it is sounds as if it will break. The priests continue chanting but every second seem to be losing their hold on the monster.

Ganesh grabs the patient by the hair and takes him in the air, to face the frothing, lurching creature.

"He is yours."

Before he even finished the sentence, the room fills with a swirling energy. Lights float and streak in various colors. Immediately a high-pitched ping of the chain breaking apart bounces off the walls. The priests well up in a smoky flame, swelling with a power like Ganesh. There arms reach out and lightening arcs from each hand to the diving monster.

The beast flew in a mighty arc, straight for the sagging patient. It tilts its head sideways as it nears to fully envelope the neck.

Dhanaya braced for a horrifying a result. At the last fraction of a second before smashed teeth shredded the patient, both of his arms shot up and inexplicably caught the creature by the neck. And the two were locked. Ganesh is now back a step, the patient is standing with feet planted, holding back this ravenous beast.

Then everything froze and time ground forward like a dripping wax. The air felt heavy, thick. Sounds became low and drawn out. In the slowest of possible progressions, the two were still struggling. Lights fluttered around the room, mutterings and chants came from nowhere. The remaining soldiers began to bleed from their eyes, noses, and ear before collapsing in convulsions.

Dhanaya felt the rooms was no longer occupied by just them...others had arrived. she could not see them, but the power and strength of terrible entities had rushed in as soon as the beast was released. Somehow, she thought she sensed they were angry and afraid. Despite the malevolent maelstrom, Dhanaya felt safe, as if it was all passing around her.

The priests were now glowing black and screaming with their arms stretched towards willing the beast forward and filling it with terrifying power. It shook with fury, but could not get any closer to the patient. The patient was still dead still, raised arms holding the beast and looking at it, dispassionately, in the eyes. The beast looked back, smashing its teeth together.

Aaskar opened his eyes. Until a moment ago he only remembered a low pop and then nothing. Now he felt tremendous pain in his chest and his lungs are filled with a fluid he knows is his own blood drowning him. Yet he is awake and without looking reaches his left finding an expected rifle from one of his soldiers. The room is a swirling maelstrom of anger and electricity but he feels completely calm. He sees the patient holding the gnashing beast in the air and allows himself a moment of praise for the damn scientist's work. His eyes see the giant beast and through the storm he focuses on the back of its head. He sits straight up as he pulls the gun to his shoulder.

He fires a burst. Time was so slow, the bullets flew like lobbed stones. As if one could somehow see the bullets flying for the creature. The priest nearest the general swung one hand and the energy from his hand caught the bullets and then both them and the general explode. His arms immediately swung back to powering the growing beast.

The patient was now losing the fight. The creature appeared twice its original size and thrashing like a feeding shark. The gamble had failed and now a small door had opened. Slowly, its maw was closing around the patient's throat. Blood began to run down the front of the gown. The room's powerful visitors were pulsing with anticipation of victory. The walls of solid rock were shaking. The creature was burning brighter red, the priests screaming was almost deafening. Their lightning bolts were pulsing and growing.

BANG

A priest's head exploded. Dhanaya stood behind him, holding the general's pistol from the control room. The other priest furiously turned an arm on her began to lash her with the fury of the room for her act.

But the retribution was short lived. The entirety of the malevolent energy redirected and overwhelmed the single priest and he was finished in a ball of flame.

The next instant you could hear the beast's neck snap with a series of slow cracks and pops. It wailed and fell to the ground.

Dhanaya felt the room return to some feeling of reality. The energy evaporated off like the last water in a boiling pot taken from the flame. The patient was now standing on his own next to her brother. Ganesh looked confused, both at the sudden loss but even more as if he was awoken from a dream.

Then she sensed something. A sense of regret for what was about to happen. Something wanted them to know they were sorry. She was able feel here brother was dead as his existence left the room. Despite the years of pain caused by him, she felt a momentary twinge of loss.

Ganesh slumped to the ground and a blue flame engulfed his body and he was gone.

Then time returns to pour forward. Only Dhanaya and the man are standing in the room surrounded by so many bodies and carnage.

Dhanaya realizes she cannot really see him, not like a normal person. He is there, she can feel a presence, but from moment to moment she struggles to actually focus on him, as if he is an illusion phasing in and out of existence and yet he is right in front of her. All the blood from the beast and bullets is gone, even from his gown.

The chamber felt so empty. The entire facility is silent. She knows they are the only two alive.

Woman "Was that you?"

He simply stares at her.

Dhanaya, "I am so glad you are ok, after all that energy we sent into you…all they did to you. And yet you stopped them…with you we can win this war." She was genuinely elated, and proud. For the first time in years she thought the war could be won.

The man just continued to stare at her.

Woman "You need to get back into the chamber. You are not….healed. We need to finish the work so you are com- completely healed."

He looks towards what used to be the doors that led to the rest of the facility.

Dhanaya feels panic and quickly walks over to him, trying to stand between him and the exit, 'Thank you for everything, but you have to get back in. Please, I am begging you. You aren't well, you can hurt yourself and others!"

Subject looks _through_ her. He is starting to appear…different. And she now felt sure he would not allow her to finish the work. More so, she knew he understood she was trying to finish creating a means to control him.

He starts to walk out of the cavern.

Woman, "NO! You are our only hope, we have cities all across the mountains and the steps that require your power. We made you to save us! You can't leave!"

The man stops and puts a hand on her shoulder. For the second time in just a few minutes she knew he regretted what he was doing.

Dhanaya, begging, "We will all be killed. You saw what they did to us here. We don't have weapons like them, except for you. Please, please help us."

Subject starts to look around the lab and the great machine begin imploding as if it had a vacuum within. Devices all throughout the facility begin to hum louder and louder until they explode.

Dhanaya watching the cavern, all her work, torn apart, she raises her hands in the futile effort to reverse the destruction. "Stop! This is all we have, if you leave us and destroy the lab we have no hope."

The patient closes his eyes and her world fades to black.

The patient and the woman are standing outside in light snow. The single entrance to the lab, a scorched melted blast door in front of them it torn in two. There was an explosion deep in the facility and then the mountain side began to slide down.

Gazing at the falling boulders quickly covering the entrance Dhanaya said, "That is it. We are the last chance on this planet. You have handed it all to the warlords and wizards. You have doomed humanity."

She looked over and he was gone.


End file.
